The down time of Coronavirus National Emergency shut down.

Well here it is, upon us all.   My husband and I had already decided to self quarantine 2 1/2 weeks earlier, as I had cold/flu already for too long this season, and we had concern about the information or lack of clarity of the information at that time.  Now it is global, and President has declared National Emergency so enough about that, now what to do during the next 3 months as we are shut in as my husband likes to say?

1)  Walking in fresh air.  First, we walk and likely every other day or daily at public park in our town where few people are out and walking.  Come spring and summer, that might well change to too many people to do the social distancing we would like.  Of course the people at the park may well want to do social distancing also, so might not be a problem.  And if the public park doesn't work, we have our 2 mile walk to the River and back. Today there is Snow for second day (March 2020) and news indicates the snow will be gone soon.

2) Writing. I thought blogging in my old blogs mght be a way to go.  Also, using the greeting cards from the time of my mother's death to send out to family and people.  Writing my and our memoirs. I have books to actually help a bit with that one, that I have ignored or not written in for years.  And I prefer to write, journal as that is my way of remembering, frequently do not refer back to former writing, although my memory is not working as well as it once did. 

3) Crochet/Knitting.  Well for me that just goes with the time, whether coronavirus or not, as I have been crocheting for years.  Recently our church prayer shawl group suspended itself due to coronavirus, and I was ahead of that one, making prayer shawls anyway to bring when husband and I decided to suspend our self-quarantine. I have a couple of grandchildren though, and it might be timely to online instruct them in this fine business of knitting/crocheting, using yarn they maybe already have.

4)  Downsizing, Clean Up, House Redecorate.  So many of us have some kind of clean up or clear up to do, ie, garage, house, spring cleaning.  For myself, it is time to turn my winter clothing in my dressing room (a bedroom I confiscated to become a dressing room ...  lol)  to spring and summer clothing.  I have much downsizing to do just now, and probably while thrift stores are not receiving much or people aren't using, I can at least separate items out.  And well, I have not redone our home in couple years, so can think about how I might do it.  I am sure that different people's juices are flowing as people think about what they can do during this down time. 

5)  Turn off the news, Facebook, media about the virus.  I know I am frightened and doing stress related constant watching the news or Facebook to learn what is going on, and I also know that I need some relax time out, as do many of us.

6) Staying in contact with loved ones, people. Part of my own reach out has more to do with my own anxiety yet staying in touch and contact helps and takes away some of the anxious feeling.  Recognizing I am among the fortunate to have a husband while many people are doing this shut down alone, I think it is more important than ever to do reach out and stay connected, in contact.  Even though Facebook is among popular media platforms, using it in productive ways right now might help some.   I like our walks, just saying hi to people seems to lift my spirits. 

7)  Kids at home. That is no longer my expertise, as I said we are the elderly population, no kids at home.  Better that parents speak to this one, than me, yet already I am seeing ways to keep children busy while at home.  I wouldn't mind a letter or card or two from youngsters.

8)  Music.  It is, imo, a language of it's own and goes a long way to calming people.  Already I have found two places that symphonies are willing to livestream for Free their concerts.   My husband likes music and is an accomplished pianist.  Our home is filled frequently with music, the many playlists he has developed and the piano he plays himself to a) calm his own nerves and b) to serenade me (was the Memory Care Unit weekly, they have shut down for the interim). 

9) Games, not Internet, not online, board games, cards.   We haven't done this one yet, hope to, expect to, hasn't really happened yet.  We both did this with our kids when they were kids.  Might be something we will pick up and do for this shut down period   Might be something for younger families, parents and children to do if they aren't already. 

10)  Crafting.  I had plenty to do for a long while, in fact, purchased and collected.  Didn't seem to have the heart for it after my mother passed.  Or maybe getting along in years.  I don't really know.  Even as I type this, I don't seem to have inclination to pick the therapeutic manner of crafting.  Wondering aloud who I could gift the items I might create?  There is still next year. eh?  Nonetheless others with the fortitude and inspiration may want to think about it, also an idea for useful child helpers.

11)  Gardening.  Not really an issue for me, I like to play outside with the yard.  Lots of people do, and this would be the time to give that yard an thorough upkeep, planting, cleaning, while growing the newly planted vegetable garden and flower garden.  Happy days, plus fresh air, and also that quieting of mind time. 

12)  Oil Painting, or any kind of painting.   I look forward to it warming up a bit where we live so I can get some time oil painting on the enclosed deck which also doubles as our reading area, breakfast area, painting studio, nap time. 

Other thoughts for how people might use this coronavirus down time are  welcome. 

Lovely Ladies, Lovely Group, Prayer Shawls

This morning I enjoyed crocheting among the Ladies of the knitting/crochet group I joined last week.  Whilst they are working on either knitting or crocheting the Prayer Shawls they are creating, the talk being shared is nice, not dramatic, not gossip, just talk.  This group of Ladies have long been together and when the Prayer Shawls were blessed this week by the Priest of St Luke's Episcopal Church it was announced this is the 1,000 Prayer Shawl being blessed.  Amazing work Ladies.  I am so much a late comer to your years of togetherness in making the Prayer Shawls.

The Prayer Shawls are blessed, then kept in containers to be given out to people in need of comfort.  I am so pleased and proud to use my crochet skills to be a part of this endeavor.

Last year I made beautiful Prayer Shawls for so many in my family, daughters, in laws, mother, siblings, and while I am not complaining, didn't really hear back from any of them.  My mother, I guess, was most appreciative and her Prayer Shawl was not the most beautiful one I made.  My mother passed almost 2 years ago, and in regret, I sure wish I had made her the most beautiful of Prayer Shawls.  I kept the one I made her in memory of her grateful appreciation and it seems she needed the comfort that particular Prayer Shawl brought to her.

Might Be Time to Expand This Simple Life

For Sure!    I started this blog and then left it, and now that we (my husband and myself) are older, living a quieter life, watching as so much is changing around us that our old rules don't seem to apply as much to living life any more.   So moving on then, I think I want this blog to talk about things that interest me now, gardening, oil painting, crafting, crocheting, spirituality, life in our home.  Sounds boring, right?  It is a bit, we have become old folks, although the people we meet and hang with see us as still youngsters, we know we are not.

Since last posting much has changed in our lives.  Health, now I have diabetes 2, worked through the past year with it, and hope I have the numbers at least in control now.  My mother passed almost 2 years ago, complications from diabetes, cancer of the bile and liver, called cholangiocarcinoma.    I grieved the loss of her for over a year, we moved from one city to another and I remained in our home as a kind of Sanctuary, not wanting to go out much, meet people much, settle into our new town.  It is better now, I am getting out, have discipline of managing my own diabetes 2 which is a daily regiment requiring constant attention as to eating, and exercise.  I have an amazingly, supportive and wonderful husband who does the exercise with me, and reminds me about glucose monitor (what we call Stick It time), as well as when I fall into weakness for foods no longer on my 'safe' list. 

Loss of children and grandchildren.  I considered it losses, however, I think I am coming around, learning they have lives, they are busy with their lives, don't have as much need of my mothering or grandmothering these days.  Might be time for my husband and I to look at building families in different arenas.  Although we both miss our grown children and grandchildren intensely, it seems we have reached an era in our lives of needing to step back and give over the living of life to our children and their parents. 

So with that brevity of explanation, getting on with this blog now, as we go about living the simpler life,

Freeze It!

We've had a chest freeze that goes back in years to parent's parents.  It still works, and over the years that it's been at our home (here on the bay - think moisture!) it has developed rust on the exterior yet works fine on the interior.  It is not pretty to look at, and it does it's job - still ticking as the Everready Bunny commercial intones.

But things get buried in the chest freezer....and it's located in the basement level of our home, a level I'm not fond of roaming.  The basement was built by guys and seems to be more for guys than for women.  Rough, functional and more to my husband's appreciation than mine.   To his credit he has been responsive to taking charge of freezer activity, keeping a mental inventory of what's in it and going down to get it for me when I ask for certain items.  Recently church friends had an upright freezer for sale, reasonable, we bought it and with the help of a few more church friends were able to get it transported to our home.

I love it!  I have wanted to do more freezing, as in freeze ahead meals, produce from the summer's bounty, and since I still have not taught myself the art of canning, my project for the time being is to put up food via freezing.  I love being able to see what is on the shelves.  I love that the bulky stuff can go into the chest freezer downstairs.  I love the labeled freezer bags that are flat on the shelves, showing colorful content, the labeled freezer containers, knowing that I can open the door, see at a glance what is there, take out what I need and know more can go in as I prepare and put it up.

There are casseroles to take to women at the church for dozens of reasons, new baby, home from surgery, sick family member, new to the community, and while I do quite well with cooking, casseroles are not my strong suit.  There are potlucks, there are visits to the sisters, visits to family.  I would love to be able to go into my freezer, pull out a meal and be ready to take it to whatever function is most immediate that week.   So I'm on the hunt for those 'freeze ahead' meals that I've seen on for example on Pinterest and blogs.

It's been the two of us for awhile now, and changes in what and how we eat when there aren't children to prepare meals for has considerably changed our eating habits.  I haven't had to have prepped ahead meals, and the meal planning, purchasing, storage is mostly in my head.  We've had to tighten the belt once more and I like the challenge of being more conscientious in menu-planning, meal preparations, food storage, and expanding that to include taking meals to others.

Lots of great blogs out there, linking to blog post at A Turtle's Life titled freezer meals on the cheap blog post on freeze ahead summer meals is one of many blogs I intend to appreciate more fully.

A time to return

It's all the thing right now in the shadow of economic crash, blogs and websites with content on living within your means, stretching resources, making what you have go further.   It's also a whole new generation of younger people who are making their way for the first time, and living with a changing paradigm from their parents economic understandings when there was a much more prosperous middle class bubble.  It's young people rediscovering what became almost lost skills from times past when people did live more on less.

For myself, born into a prosperous middle class era of the 1950's, (albeit lower economic level of the then middle class), I was a teen coming of age in the 1960's in what was then another social paradigm shift.   The back to the land movement,  young people looking for a more altruistic way to live conscientiously in accord with Mother Earth.  While I did not homestead in  a back to the land manner, I was greatly influenced by my peers efforts.  I saw myself as a young 1970's wife and mother leaning towards what was then thought to be a more wholesome way to live life.

A few decades passed, and here we are into the 21st century, and learning or re-learning lost skills, revisiting retired skills, reviving a way of life more familiar to grandparent's generation.  For purposes of this blog, I want more to collect and share ideas others are enthusiastically sharing.  It's not my intent to offer content that is new or news, rather to gather what are or have been useful ideas for me that I have either used or can get excited about using again or can use for the first time in delight given the stigma of being frugal, pinching pennies, living in accord with Mother Earth,  (sustainable, eco-green, organic), back to basics are in vogue.

Clay Pot Refridgerator - no electricity

Something I'll keep in mind.   Love those old fashioned homemaking skills.

And the purpose of this blog is what?

First post for this blog.  Want to gather some of my different interests into this place.   What might be some things that I will post to this blog?   Crafts for one, likely not tutorials.  Recipes might be another.  Hair, fashion and beauty might be one.  Skinflint shortcuts, hints, tips would be another.  Fun ways to bring a moment of happy cheer to neighbors, family, friends.  Gardening and yard might be another.  Holidays, although I'm not big on all the holidays.  Thrifty and frugal approaches, eco aware, repurpose, upcycle, recycle.   I guess I want this blog to be a bit of a catch all for all kinds of bits of this, bits of that...just bits and pieces really.